Northern Indiana Pastel Society Show

I’m chugging along on my novel again, and because it’s consumed so much of my brain space I completely forgot to post that I have two paintings up in the Colfax Cultural Center in South Bend.

I was lucky enough to have one of my paintings selected as a winner alongside the work of three other society members (Mary Meehan Firtl, Daniel J. Slattery, and Elizabeth Kuntz). There is a lot more work there by other members as well.

Joining this organization has been a wonderful experience and I really am grateful for the guidance and fellowship of the members.

If you have time to go to the gallery to check out the work (much of it is for sale), then please do:

914 Lincoln Way W

South Bend, IN 46616

The gallery is on the first floor, first door on the right after ascending the staircase. The hours for viewing are Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-4. The show runs until October 17th.

This is the painting of mine that was the judge selected. “Tent City, PSAB 2003”. Because it was a little confusing, and I understand, PSAB stands for Prince Sultan Air Base which was where I was stationed in 2002 and 2003 in the USAF. We had to build a tent city for the influx of troops prior to the invasion of Iraq. Since I didn’t take many photos at the time, this is an imagined portrait of myself

This is the other painting. “Follow Me, Daddy.” It’s form a reference photo my wife took when we were hiking the Hidden Lake Trail at Glacier national park this summer.

Okay. I was, and am, grateful to the Northern Indiana Pastel Society for organizing this show and for letting me be a part of it. Thank you to Justin Barfield for judging the show. Thank you to everyone in the Northern Indiana Pastel Society for sharing their work.

More Athena Drawings

These are drawings with goddesses and little soldiers. I may do a painting eventually, but right now there is a lot of this in my head and there’s no way I can keep up with them all if I slow down to paint them instead of doing them in this style.

New Stuff

I’m working on some illustrations. I don’t know what I’ll do with them yet, but here are a couple.

This Is Not a Crusade #1

Working on more military related paintings.

This is what my novel looks like.

Hard to believe I made it to a stage where I can do a hard copy revision, but I did.

Moss Covered Dead Wood

This is a downed tree in our neighborhood. Not sure what I’ll title it yet.

Pteranadon Mountain: Colorado

This is a mountain from a trip to Colorado a few years ago.

3 Sisters Watercolor

I decided to move further away from the monochromatic version I’d initially envisioned, and I think this is better. This one is on a full sheet of arches paper that I bought over a year ago, so I’m glad I finally found a reason to use it.

3 Sisters Watercolor 1

Here’s the first pass. So far it’s all watercolor. I may gesso and pastel over top to do some cloud stuff depending on how it goes tomorrow.

Rock Hopping With Penelope

Here is what I am working on for the show coming up soon.

Falls Below the Tea House: Lake Louise

Woke this morning to catch the sunrise on the Three Sisters mountains in Alberta but it was overcast, so it was a bust. But I painted this waterfall from our hike at Lake Louise a few days ago instead.

A Mountain.

Here is a mountain I’m working on.

Another dead tree

I saw this on my walk yesterday. I finally found a way to mount the surface to the board so I can paint the whole surface and not have any of it in shadow. I used sticky tack and so far it’s working great.

Sentinel of the Yellowstone Oil Version

I finally started back on this painting of a dead tree overlooking the Yellowstone River. Maybe I’ll get it done this week.

Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble

This is a pastel I’m working on of my daughters and a couple of their friends playing with a bucket of leeches when we were in Doerr County last year.

Mother Fetching Water

This is a pastel portrait I did of a mother heading to get water on a farm.

Turkey Run Tree

Here is the spot I got to with the painting today. I like where it’s at currently, but I’ll walk away for a few days and come back and see if I want to change anything.

Turkey Run Hike Trees and Rocks

Here is something I started today. It’s a 12x16 ampersand board and the difference between this and the mi teintes surfaces is impressive. It’s way more expensive and I would never do studies with this. But maybe there is a happy medium with some of the mounted papers. The main drawback I see with this board is that I can’t figure out how to get it attached to the easel without blocking the top and bottom.

More Fallen Tree Stuff

Here’s what I’m working on today.

Early Morning Stream

This is a 6x8 pastel done on sennelier la carte paper. It is 100 dollars not including shipping.